Here’s how Dawn Violo of Emergency Road Services of Canada described her experience as an exhibitor at Truck World 2008 last month.

“Being part of Truck World was the best business decision we’ve made since opening for business,” the Mississauga-based entrepreneur told Today’s Trucking as she and her crew dismantled their booth Saturday afternoon, after three hectic but profitable days at Truck World 2008.

By all accounts her experience was shared by more than 400 exhibitors who took over the 300,000-plus sq ft of space spread across the five huge halls of Mississauga’s International Centre.

For three days and from all corners of North America they came, even from as far as Australia, thousands of truckers, buyers, sellers and wanna-be drivers. The throng made Truck World 2008 quite possibly the biggest trucking trade show in Canadian history.

Among the attendees was a woman who travelled very far indeed to get there. Melissa Strong, human resources manager at Roadmaster Haulage in Sydney, Australia, was at the show as part of a 7-week trip that has also included time spent in the U.S. and England. That trip, courtesy of Cummins South Pacific, was the key prize she won after being named Australian Transport Woman of the Year for 2007. She was accompanied to the show by Ron Deane of Cummins South Pacific and Gary Richards of
Mack Australia.

The show got underway with an injection of business-minded encouragement from one of the industry’s leaders, Celadon founder and CEO Steve Russell. (See “Nowhere to go but up” on page 35.) His speech was followed quickly by a bit of politicking on the part of Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Jim Bradley, who demonstrated at the Kenworth display that he could indeed set a speed limiter on a highway tractor. (For more on that contentious issue, see “Them’s the Brakes,”on page 43.) He needed help.

The next three days proved to be a veritable circus of technology, trade, ingenuity, and fellowship. Among the crowd-pleasing new offerings were Mack’s mammoth Titan and the ultra-suave International LoneStar, and topping off the long litany of special events and seminars was the presentation of the 2008 highwaySTAR of the Year award to Dale Hadland.

Truck World was presented and operated by Newcom Shows, part of Newcom Business Media, the company that produces Today’s Truckingmagazine, HighwaySTAR, Truck & Trailer and Transport Routier, and their affiliated websites. The show set a
new attendance record.